William scotbubn buist



(No Model.)

W. S. BUIST.

RAILWAY snow PLOW.

No. 306,716. Patented Oct. 21, 1884.

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UNTTE STATES ATENT FFICE.

WVILLIAM SCOTBURN BUIST, OF BOLTON VILLAGE, ONTARIO, CANADA.

RAILWAY SNOW-PLOW.

LJPE' JIEICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 306,716, datedOctober 21, 1884.

Application filed April 26, 1884. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM SooTBURN BUIs'r, of Bolton Village, in thecounty of Peel, in the Province of Ontario, Canada, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Railway Snow-Flows; and I dohereby de-' clare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same.

My invention relates to railway snow-plows; and it consists,essentially, in the peculiar construction of the front or cuttingportion of the plow, which, in plows hitherto used, has in variably beenmade substantially wedgeshaped, or having the central point of thecuting-edge much in advance of the front outer angles of the plow, theobject, seemingly, being to divide the snow lying on the track centrallyand throw it to each side; and it is found that with plows soconstructed, when not running atahigh rate of speed, the snow, not beinglifted and thrown far enough away from the track, frequently falls backon the track and clogs the wheels of the engine or train.

The effect of driving such plows through snow is to crowd and pack it'inhard banks on each side of the track. This being repeated several times,and especially in deep drifts or cuttings, soon renders it impossible toclear the track with the plows alone. Hand-shoveling has to be resortedto, and delay of trains and serious loss are thereby occasioned. Inrunning such plows through side drifts the pressure comes mainly on oneside, and the plows are thereby sometimes thrown from the track. Theobject of my invention is to produce a plow that, instead of-merelycrowding the snow to either side, will first lift it directly from thetrack to a certain height and then throw it from the plow on each side.It is evident that being thrown from a height it will be farther removedfrom the track than could be done by pushing it sidewise from the rails.

In the annexed drawings, which form a part of this specification, Figure1 is a perspective view of my improved plow, 'and Fig. 2 is a plan view.

It will be seen by reference to these drawings that my improved plowacts upon the snow somewhat in the manner of a scoopshovel inclinedupward from its front or cutting edge. The two sides a a of the plow areplain surfaces parallel to each other longitudinally. The lower portionof the face of the plow is made hollow, forming the trough b, and thejunction of its edges with the sides a form the sharp cutting edges 0 c,which neatly cut the snow and throw that which is to be lifted togetherin the trough b, whence it is forced upward by the advance of the plowagainst the snow until it reaches the upper part of the plow-front,where the character of the plow-front is reversed-that is to say,instead of being depressed, as at b, in the lower portion, the centralpart of the front is changed into the raised ridge or protruding andcentral dividing-edge, d, and the outer or side edges, 6, depressed andreceding. The molded front is produced upward and rearward until nearthe top of the plow, where it is curved over forward and toward eachside, thus forming a, kind of spout, through which the snow that wasfirst gathered in the trough b is forced high over the adjacent banks.The front or cutting part being at least quite as wide as any subsequentpart of the plow, precludes any difficulty in withdrawing the plow froma snow-bank, should such be found necessary.

On reference to Fig. 1 it will be noted that the outer cutting-edge, z,rises from the front of the plow wit-h an upward curvature. This upwardcurvature continues to a point about midway of the length of the plow,where the curvature of the edge in the opposite direction commences. Inother words, the forward portion of the edge is convex, while the rearpor tion is concave. In practice it is found that by means of thiscurvature I am enabled to give the upper surface a form which ispeculiarly advantageous in causing the snow to roll or tumble firstinward toward the center as it passes upon the front, and subsequentlyoutward to the sides as it leaves the rear. The results secured by thispeculiar curvature are far better than those which would be secured by aplow having a straight cutting-edge at the vertical side walls, thecutting-edge which retreats from the sides to the center, the concaveforward surface, Z), the upwardly and forwardly curved edge (I, and thecorresponding surfaces, 0, extending thence backward to opposite sidesof the plow, the cutting-edges i at the sides of the plow rising fromthe forward corners in upwardly-curved lines, and continuing thence tothe rear in downwardlycurved lines, as shown.

Signed at Toronto, this 2d day of April, 1884.

XVILLIAM SOOTBURN BUIST. In presence of- J OSEPII FEE, J AS. I'IAVERSON.

